Tonight's four-hour marathon Charlestown Town Council meeting began and ended with two controversial wind energy issues.
Starting the talkathon, the Council heard from Attorney Nick Gorham representing Larry LeBlanc, owner of the 81-acre site of the controversial Whalerock industrial wind farm proposal. LeBlanc was present, but did not speak. The issue: LeBlanc's offer to sell the parcel to the town for $3 million.
And at the very end of the meeting, there was the first reading and a vote to hold a public hearing on the proposed ordinance from the Planning Commission that would impose a total ban on all wind-to-electricity devices, in every form, size and location.
Larry's Land. LeBlanc's lawyer made it clear from the start that $3 million is the sales price. He stated that unless LeBlanc received what he felt was a fair price, he would pursue his other options such as the dreaded Whalerock project or an affordable housing complex or some unnamed nightmare, described by Gorham as "other moving parts."
The Council noted the recent $825,000 appraisal for the land and an earlier $1.4 million pre-market-crash appraisal. Councilor Dan Slattery attempted to make $1.5 million the Council's counteroffer. After some dialogue, it became clear that the Town was not going to go up from $1.5 million and LeBlanc wasn't going to come down from $3 million, so there it ended.
One interesting and personal moment: at one point Slattery looked at what was then a jam-packed room and asked if there were any members of the audience who felt the town should spend more than $1.5 million on the land. Only two people raised their hands: one was Planning Commissar Ruth Platner and the other was me. Let the record reflect that Ruth Platner and I, alone among others, agree on one thing.
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| We're safe from death-ray-firing wind turbines (Henrique Alvim Correa for "War of the Worlds") |
Councilor Gregg Avedisian made an impassioned argument against the ordinance, noting that he had "zero confidence" that the Planning Commission could produce a residential wind power ordinance in six months and stated flatly that he would be "surprised if they could write one in six years." He proposed assembling an ad hoc committee to promote alternative energy in the town.
Chris Kearns of Alteris Energy, the town contractor that erected the meteorological tower in Ninigret Park designed to measure our town's average wind potential, urged the town to simply extend its existing moratorium until the tower has gathered one year of data rather than enact an ordinance banning wind energy. An aside: the met tower would probably be a prohibited use under the total ban ordinance since it converts wind into electricity in order to measure it.
Councilor Dan Slattery was particularly adamant about the need to ban wind power given his voluminous research on the bad things that happen from wind turbines, such as health effects (most of which comes from fossil fuel industry funded sources).
The CCA Council bloc of Council President Tom Gentz, Dan Slattery, and their ally Councilor Lisa DiBello prevailed in the 3-2 vote to advance this radical NIMBY ordinance on to a public hearing at the next Council meeting on September 12th. Gregg Avedisian and Marge Frank voted NO.
A Miracle! As dismal and depressing as the Council's actions on wind energy were, there was a wonderful surprise in the Council's approval of funding for not one, but two new affordable housing proposals. The two projects each sought $50,000 grants from the Town's $1 million affordable housing bond fund (approved by voters in 2006 but never used) to do the initial planning and permitting.
Both projects are 100% affordable housing and all are for rental units, the category most sorely lacking in town. One is the 11 unit Shannock Village Cottages and the other is the 24-unit-or-less "Churchwood" project on Route 1A across from Washington Trust.
Shannock Village would be for working families and Churchwood would be for low-income senior citizens. The initial funding was approved with none of the usual disparaging remarks about families with children or senior citizens with cats, although these project will now be referred to the Planning Commission where such issues as cats and kids have been used to kill affordable housing projects in the past.
The Council also approved the request from Shannock Village that $275,000 be committed from the Affordable Housing bond for future land acquisition. Again, the Council approved the request with virtually no dispute. Hats off the the Council for voting unanimously right down the line on these projects.
Oh, and, congratulations to Evelyn Smith for being named, without opposition, as chair of the Affordable Housing Commission.
Other Council meeting items of note:
The Wastewater Management Commission made its report that it could not complete its mission to draft an ordinance that provides residents with less costly but effective alternatives to $30,000 denitrification systems. They asked the Council to try to enlist our neighboring towns into an effort to seek a legislative fix.
The Council approved a $2,200 contract with Johnson Controls to conduct an in-depth "investment audit" that would find ways for the town to save energy—and around $35,000 a year.
YMCA Camp: The Council ok'd the formation of an ad hoc committee to find the money to turn the controversial YMCA camp on Watchaug Pond into open space. The designated members from the various town commissions were easily approved, but not the designated members from the neighborhood groups or the YMCA or Charlestown Land Trust: none of their designees are full-time residents, as required by Town Charter! So the Council voted to accept whoever those groups pick, provided they actually are full-time residents.
There is more detail to be added on all these subjects, as well as the other matters that came before the Council tonight, but those will wait.
We can all rest easily tonight knowing that our stalwart CCA Council NIMBYs are looking over us to protect us from terrible turbines and other nasty things that go bump in the night. And thank you, Gregg Avedisian and Marge Frank, for standing up to them.
Author: Will Collette